Re: Calling Mr. India

Clarification from a friend, whose comment on Indians in the media I referenced in Calling Mr. India:

"So I read your blog post and realized that you were referring to me in the "Indians have entered the mainstream" comment as opposed to the "pimp out your qualifications" comment, which I was wondering about.

Anyway, so I felt compelled to clarify/qualify that statement. It was more of a Indians entering mainstream media (although it goes beyond that in this context).

You have Kal Penn on House, Parmindra Nagre on ER (both prime shows), and Sanjay Gupta on CNN and as Surgeon General - although I guess you could argue that furthers the Indians are doctors stereotype hah. You also have Kelly Kapoor on the Office and that secretary guy on 30 Rock. Are we far away from the day, where in addition to the token black, hispanic, and Asian newscaster, we'll also have the obligatory Indian person on each news broadcast? Who knows, may happen 5 years from now.

You have Obama specifically refer to Indians/Hindus in his inaugral address. You have an Indian-American as a Governor of a state, who's being realistically talked about as a presidential candidate.

You have Vikram Pandit as CEO of Citigroup - an iconic American institution. You have Neil Kashkari as the head of the biggest fund in the world aka the TARP program.

And then of course the prominence of the music influences, the cuisine, etc. - the cultural aspects.

All things we couldn't have imagined 10-15 years ago.

I didn't mean Indians have entered the mainstream, as in that I felt left out of the mainstream while growing up here. I think that's the greatest thing about our country; there's very few countries in the world where you don't constantly feel like an "outsider". So yes, we've never been out of the "mainstream" per se, but there's just generally a greater sense of awareness of India, Indians, and Indian culture.

Hey, maybe I should start a blog hahaha."